Fallout

The Hot War

"The novels of Harry Turtledove show history balancing on single moments: One act of folly. One poor decision. One moment of rage. In his astounding new series, the unthinkable has come to pass. The Cold War turns hot--and the United States and the Soviet Union unleash their nuclear arsenals upon each other. Millions die. Millions more are displaced. Germans battle side by side with Americans, Polish freedom fighters next to Russian fascists. The genie is out of the bottle. And there's no telling what fresh hell will come next. At the heart of Fallout are Harry Truman and Josef Stalin. Even as Joe McCarthy rises in power, the U.S. president is focused elsewhere, planning to cut off the head of the Soviet threat by taking out Stalin. It's a daring gambit, but the Soviets have one of their own. Meanwhile, Europe's weak sisters, France and Italy, seem poised to choose the winning side, while China threatens to overrun Korea. With Great Britain ravaged and swaths of America in ruins, leaders are running out of options. When the United States drops another series of bombs to slow the Russian advance in Europe, Stalin strikes back--with horrifying results. These staggering events unfold through the eyes of a sprawling cast of characters: a Holocaust survivor in a displaced persons camp in Washington; the wife of a bomber pilot and her five-year-old daughter starting a new existence; a savage Soviet fighter waging war by his own rules; a British pub owner falling in love with an American pilot. In the masterly hands of Harry Turtledove, this epic chronicle of war becomes a story of human struggle. As the armies of the world implode, the next chapter will be written by the survivors--those willing to rise up for an uncertain future. PRAISE FOR HARRY TURTLEDOVE "Turtledove is the standard-bearer for alternate history."--USA Today Bombs Away "Turtledove's thorough research and grounded imagination work to create a frighteningly realistic past where world leaders act out of desperation and fatalism, and a large cast of common folk suffer the consequences. The vicarious sense of eschatological dread is always powerful."--Booklist Last Orders "All quite plausible. Turtledove's focus on the characters serves to fill out the big picture with patient, nitty-gritty detail. Armchair warriors will have much to ponder."--Kirkus Reviews Two Fronts "A you-are-there chronicle of battle on land and sea and in the air."--Tor.com Coup d'Etat "This is what alternative history is all about."--Historical Novels Review"-- Provided by publisher.

Comment

Pretty much more of the same: narrative switches between characters, events starts to heat up, some interesting (albeit muted) political commentary. I'm actually interested to see how he wraps this series up and the outlook is pretty bleak by the end of the second novel. Maybe not quite as good as In the Presence of Mine Enemies or Joe Steele.

The second book in Turtledoves atomic Cold War-turns-hot World War III trilogy. This book kicks up the action and destruction, while the political intrigue starts taking the backseat. The plot begins after the initial exchanges of atomic weapons by the US and the USSR, which has also initiated an all out ground war between the Eastern Bloc and the Western nations in Germany. Turtledove doesn't go too deep into the intricacies of the conflict, instead moving the story forward through combatants and civilians on both sides. The conflict exacerbates with each side targeting the other directly rather than their allied nations, with no serious end in site. Both sides leadership realize that their political situations require them to continue the war or face political upheaval from their governments. At the same time, they see no foreseeable end, as neither side could functionally invade and hold the other. The conflict will, or already has, broken both nations to a point of questionable recovery. While this is happening, armies from their satellite nations, being on the front lines of the ground war and having suffered the initial onslaught of atomic destruction, begin to consider shaking away from their respective superpowers.

The only downside to this sequel was that the civilian chapters drug on a bit. The last book made a point to show how the civilian chapters tied into the rest of the story, but it's difficult to see where Turtledove is going with them at this point. Either way, it's a worthy sequel and an interesting read.

Harry Turtledove continues this epic trilogy of how history could have unfolded if the Cold War had turned hot. This novel is a believable and terrifying depiction of the devastation caused by World War III and its effects on ordinary people on both sides of the conflict. Thrilling and dark, this book will leave the reader anxiously awaiting this trilogy's conclusion.